Ledsham, West Yorkshire

Coordinates: 53°45′43″N 1°18′36″W / 53.762°N 1.310°W

A game of Cricket in Ledsham, 2003 (note church spire in the background)

Ledsham is a village and civil parish 4 miles (6 km) north of Castleford and 11 miles (18 km) east of Leeds in the county of West Yorkshire, England. The village is in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough and near to the A1 Great North Road. It has a population of 162.[1]

There is a late seventh-century Anglo-Saxon church (the oldest church and the oldest building standing in West Yorkshire),[2] and nearby Ledston Hall. The village school, like schools in Collingham and Thorp Arch is named after Lady Elizabeth Hastings.

Ledsham is first mentioned around 1030 in the form Ledesham. Like nearby Ledston, the name seems to refer to Leeds (or the Old English precursor of this name, Loidis, which denoted a region rather than a town), meaning the hām ('homestead, farm') belonging to Leeds.[3]

Ledsham have a cricket team, who currently play in the Wetherby League.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Office for National Statistics : Census 2001 : Parish Headcounts : Leeds retrieved 2009-09-10
  2. ↑ 1987 publication by West Yorkshire Archaeology Service: HC/2/SW,CP "Historic Churches of West Yorkshire - Ledsham Church"
  3. ↑ Victor Watts (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), s.v. LEDSHAM WYorks.
  4. ↑ Ledsham Cricket Club

External links

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